Since 1980, skilled workers with a college education or professional training have grown more in demand and more eligible for higher paying jobs than unskilled workers with no college or professional niches. The pace of innovation, competition and globalization has sent the demand for skilled labor on an upward climb, and forced organizations to pay more for it.

The Opening Divide

Technology has a major impact on the demand for skilled or unskilled labor. For example, advancements in manufacturing throughout the 19th century created a rise in demand for less skilled workers who didn’t necessarily need a college education to be able to operate machinery, according to a 2012 report by economists Lawrence F. Katz and Robert A. Margo for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Simultaneously, manufacturing also created a rise in demand for highly educated white-collar workers who could create technical advancements. Throughout the 20th and 21st century, demand for high-skilled workers to fill professional, managerial and technical positions has increased faster than demand for low-skilled workers.

The Chasm Ahead

From 1980 to 2010, as demand for skilled labor surpassed demand for unskilled labor, wages for skilled workers have increased rapidly in the US, according to a 2011 report by Anthony P. Carnavale and Stephen J. Rose of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. For example, according to the report, workers with bachelor’s degrees in 1980 earned 40 percent more than workers without a degree while bachelor’s degree graduates in 2010 earned 76 percent more than their noncollege counterparts. This trend, if left unchanged by an increase in college-educated workers in the workforce, could widen the gap to 96 percent by 2025, according to Carnavale and Rose.

Factors Widening the Gap

International trade, industry deregulation and changes in unions and organizational structures are all contributors to expanding wage disparity between skilled and unskilled labor, according to The Urban Institute. The availability of higher paying jobs for skilled workers also plays a role. For example, the greater a worker’s formal education, the more qualified the worker is likely to be for managerial or professional jobs, according to Carnavale and Rose.

What Employers Need

As of 2013, 86 percent of CEOs in the US believe that new technology will continue to change the way their organizations do business during the next five years, according to findings from PwC’s global survey of 1,344 CEOs worldwide. Business leaders are concerned about their rising need for skills that are becoming more difficult to find in job candidates, according to the survey. This signals that students and job seekers need to become as skilled as organizations need them to be today and for the near future.

About the Author

A writer since 1995, Christian Fisher is an author specializing in personal empowerment and professional success. From 2000 to 2005, he wrote true stories of human triumph for "Woman's World" magazine. Since 2004, he has also helped launch businesses including a music licensing company and a music school.